In Place Of Another
by lovesrainscent
Summary: It's never good to drink alone.  Shikaku and Tsunade the night the village learns Jiraiya has died.


**Title: In Place Of Another  
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**Author: Lovesrainscent**

**Rating: T**

**Pairing: Shikaku/Tsunade**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or these characters and do not stand to make any profit from posting this story.

**Summary: ** It's never good to drink alone. Shikaku and Tsunade the night after the village learns Jiraiya has died.

**In Place Of Another  
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"You shouldn't have come."

"You shouldn't be drinking alone."

Tsunade sighed and bowed her head slightly, covering her eyes with her hand. Then she took a deep breath, wiped away a few stray tears and raised her head to look at him. She ran one hand through her golden locks, sweeping her disheveled hair back out of her face.

"Care to join me then?" she queried, motioning with her hand to the chairs at the side of the room.

Pulling up a seat, Shikaku situated himself across from her on the other side of the desk and set a fresh bottle between them. "Thought you'd never ask."

He uncorked the bottle and refilled the cup she held up for him, then his own. Raising them in salute, they then drained them and filled them once more.

"Still, you shouldn't have come," she said after the second round.

He refilled the small earthenware vessels once more before answering. "I needed to."

Tsunade held the small cup to her lips and paused before sipping it. Shikaku took note of this. "How much have you had already?" he asked nonchalantly but he knew he couldn't hide his concern from her.

"Too much. No, make that not enough," she replied, shaking her head, "not nearly enough." Then she finished the drink and motioned for him to fill it again. The elder Nara complied.

"Does Yoshino know you're here?"

"She made me come over here tonight."

His reply earned an arched eyebrow and a wisp of a smile from his Hokage. "Yoshino _made_ you come here? I thought you said you _needed_ to."

The corner of his own mouth twitched up in the half-lopsided smile she'd seen on his sixteen year old son just the other day. With a stab of realization she remembered that that was exactly how Shikaku had looked when he himself was a smart-assed teenage boy.

"Yoshino made me realize that I needed to be here tonight. I wanted to but..."

"But?"

"But it was Yoshino who made me realize that wanting to be with you was the right thing," he answered.

"Oh." The word hung between them and Tsunade silently wondered how that particular conversation had gone. But her head was spinning from the alcohol and she couldn't give it too much thought at the moment. Instead she asked for a refill.

They finished the bottle with silence aching between them, Tsunade consumed with grief over Jiraiya's death and Shikaku grief-stricken himself at seeing her so _broken_. It wasn't just the loss of Jiraiya that pained him like it did the rest of the village, it was seeing the effect of his death on _her. _

She was supposed to be indomitable, invincible, one of the Three Legendary Sannin. But now only one remained and she was empty and alone. With red-rimmed eyes and sake-flushed cheeks she was a broken goddess, bereft.

He hated that.

"I bet against him, you know."

"No. I didn't know."

"I bet against him and I won. He dared me before he left. I was worried about him going off alone and he dared me to bet against him. Said I had the worst luck so I was sure to lose. But I didn't. For once I won. I bet against him and I won."

She picked up the bottle herself and rattled it uselessly as a few stubborn drops clung to the rim.

"I didn't know."

"Here's something else you didn't know, then Shikaku Nara. I turned him down. Before he left. One more time. It had gotten boring, you know? Persistent little lecher that he was. Kind of a boring standing joke between us. So I turned him down yet again and he just shrugged it off and said rejection made a man stronger."

Tsunade rose from her seat and turned to her balcony with Shikaku rising to follow. The two of them stood on the balcony, looking out over the twinkling lights of Konoha. "He's gone," she whispered to the night. "He's gone and now there's no one left. Not Sarutobi, or Orochimaru or Jiraiya. He's gone and I'm alone."

"You're not alone," Shikaku replied, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You've got me, Inoichi and Chouza. We're all still here for you. We always were."

What made women so troublesome Shikaku had long known was their sheer unpredictability. Nothing they did should surprise him anymore but he was still unprepared for Tsunade's kiss. Turning to him, her hands on his vest, pulling herself up to him she kissed him passionately, without any reservation whatsoever. Startled his spine stiffened at first then he responded to her, returning her kiss just as fervently, tasting the sake on her lips as she parted them for him. Briefly it lasted then she pulled away.

"I'm sorry..."

"Tsunade, I..."

"I'm sorry I didn't kiss him like that before he left," she whispered as she buried her face against his chest.

Shikaku folded her in his arms and kissed the top of her head. "I know."


End file.
